


never gonna leave

by pixies



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Babies, Domestic Fluff, M/M, what even is that tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 10:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3932578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixies/pseuds/pixies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall wakes up to a surprise on his doorstep. Zayn is there every step of the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	never gonna leave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tachycardia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tachycardia/gifts).



> For tachycardia! I hope you like it- I actually spent most of my time leading up to this writing the ot5 prompt, but with everything that has happened I had a hard time finishing it. Luckily for me you gave me a baby prompt and I am literally always down to write about boys with babies! Maybe some time in the future I'll finish the other prompt, too. I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> Prompt: Literally any single one of these pairings (I'm very, very easy) - other guy has to take care of a randomly abandoned baby, cue: Zayn being devastatingly cute with it while helping out, becoming irreplaceable, etc.

It’s 6 am when Zayn’s phone rings. He rolls over and buries his head under his pillow, trying to ignore it. When he realizes that it’s Niall’s ringtone, however, he extends his arm and feels around blindly on his nightstand for his phone. Niall’s rarely up this early, and he knows Zayn never is, so the fact that he’s calling before the sun is even up makes Zayn a little worried.

“‘Lo?” He mumbles, voice thick. He clears his throat, and then- “Ni?”

“Zayn, hey. Um. Can you come over?”

And there’s something about Niall’s voice, the anxious tilt to it, the way it quivers when he speaks, that has Zayn shooting out of bed. 

“I’m on my way.”  
\--

“Ni?” Zayn calls after he lets himself into Niall’s apartment. “Niall, everything okay?”

He stops moving, trying to listen to see if he can figure out where Niall is. All of the lights in the apartment are on, as is the television, and, when he peeks into the kitchen, the kettle. It’s still silent in the apartment, and Zayn’s starting to freak out, because Niall had sounded freaked out when he called and now Zayn can’t find him-

He stops moving again when he hears a sneeze, and then a little whimper, and then, finally, Niall’s voice- “Shhh, there’s a love, you’re alright-”

Zayn’s up the stairs now, and he hangs a left to Niall’s bedroom, where the door is open. He’s relieved when he finally sees Niall, standing in the middle of the room, swaying back and forth on his feet. He turns when he hears Zayn in the doorway, and Zayn finally gets a look at what it is he’s holding.

“Baby?”

“Hi to you, too, love,” Niall jokes, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes and he actually looks kind of terrified. Zayn tells his brain to move his feet, and after about five seconds, it happens, and he makes his way over to Niall. 

“Sorry, I mean, hi, babe, but-” Zayn stops in front of Niall and looks down at the little bundle he’s got in his arms. “ _Baby_.”

\--

“Knee woke me up this morning, so I got up to make tea and go get my paper, and when I opened the door…” Niall trails off, pointing to where the baby is now asleep on the center of his bed, surrounded by pillows so she won’t roll off, although she doesn’t look old enough to even be able to roll yet. “It’s fuckin’ freezing outside, didn’t even ring the doorbell, just left her there…”

“Was there a note, or anything?” Zayn asks, and Niall nods, reaches into his hoodie pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. Zayn takes it from him and unfolds him, reading it out loud. “‘I’m sorry. Please take care of her.’ Ni, who’s this from?”

“It’s um. It’s my brother’s handwriting.”

\--

“I haven’t seen him in years, Z, like. No one in the family has heard from him at all, he just cut everyone out and stopped talking to us after Ma tried to convince him to go to rehab, remember, and now he’s got a _baby_?”

“He hasn’t got a baby anymore,” Zayn murmurs. He’s holding the baby now, has got her bundled up and tucked into the crook of his arm while they sit on the couch, and it’s only been a few hours but he’s already feeling protective of her. He remembers when Greg up and left, remembers how worried Niall was, how hurt he was that his brother wouldn’t- couldn’t- get better for his family, that he chose the drugs over them. “Has she got a name?”

Niall shakes his head. “I looked in the bag that was left with her for a hospital bracelet, or a certificate, anything, but all that was in there was a few diapers, a hospital blanket, a bottle, and a sample canister of formula.”

“Like he brought her here straight from the hospital or summat,” Zayn says. “She can’t be more than a few days old.”

Niall reaches over and runs the tip of his finger down the baby’s nose. “How could he do this to her?”

\--

Louis comes over a few hours later with all of the baby stuff he had in his house from the last time his family had visited. 

“Twins are toddlers now, too big for most of this stuff,” he says as he sets down a bassinet and some boxes with diapers and bottles and little tiny onesies in them. “It was just easier for me to buy it and have it at the house rather than have mum lug it all to and fro, you know? Guess it came in handy, though.”

“Yeah, who knew,” Niall replies, and Zayn, in the kitchen, can tell by his voice that he’s still in shock. 

“Right! So, where is the little love? Uncle Louis wants to say hello.”

“Right here,” Zayn calls, and walks into the living room, baby still in his arms. “Surprised Haz isn’t with you.”

“He was out on a run when you called,” Louis explains. “I wanted to get here as soon as I could. I texted him, though, so he’ll probably be over soon- okay, give me the baby now please-” And then he’s reaching over and grabbing her right out of Zayn’s arms, already cooing over her. “Hi, there, beautiful! Who in their right mind would wanna get rid of you, huh?”

“Real reason Louis didn’t wanna wait for Harry- he didn’t wanna have to share the baby,” Niall says, and it’s the first time since Zayn got there that he’s believed it when Niall smiled. 

“Damn straight I didn’t wanna share the baby, Harry’s _impossible_ -” The baby starts crying, then, and Louis immediately goes back into his baby talk.

Niall heads for the kitchen, then, so Zayn follows. 

“Hey,” he says, and Niall stops but doesn’t turn around. “Ni.”

“Zayn, I-” Niall turns around then, and his voice catches on Zayn’s name. “What do I do?”

“I dunno,” Zayn admits. He pulls Niall into a hug, feels Niall wrap his arms around his waist, Niall’s face pressed into the crook of his neck. “But whatever you decide, I’m here for it, yeah?”

\--

Niall calls his mom that afternoon to fill her in, to tell her that his brother left a baby on his doorstep, to tell her that he’s going to keep her.

“No, Ma, I know you would,” he says, and then sags back into the couch. “But there’s just something that’s telling me that I should, yeah? I don’t know what it is, but it just seems...right. She should stay here. With me.”

Zayn, lying lengthwise on the couch with his head on Niall’s lap and the baby asleep on his chest, reaches up with his free hand to catch Niall’s hand and give it a squeeze. Niall looks down and smiles, close-mouthed and tired, and brings his hand to Zayn’s hair, running his fingers through it while he talks to his mom. 

The doorbell rings then, and Zayn gets up to bring it, carrying the baby with him.  
It’s Liam, bags of food in his hands. 

“You’re the best,” Zayn says as he lets him in, leans in to hug him with the arm he’s got free. “Can you even believe this is happening right now?”

“No,” Liam admits, shrugging. “But this may just be the thing that finally fazes the unflappable Niall Horan, huh?”

“Trust,” comes Niall’s voice as he joins them in the foyer, tucking his phone into his pocket. “This has definitely done the trick.”

\--

The rest of the evening passes uneventfully, and they feed the baby and get her changed and to bed without a hitch before passing out themselves.

Zayn startles awake around midnight. His eyes immediately dart to the monitor on Niall’s bedside table, but there’s no sound coming from it. Figuring he was probably just sleeping fitfully because of the long day they had, he rolls over to try and go back to sleep, and that’s when he realizes that Niall’s not there.

The light isn’t on in the bathroom, so Zayn gets out of bed to go find him, grabbing the sweater that’s hanging on the end of the bed and tugging it over his head.

“Ni?” He whispers as he walks, but doesn’t get a response. The first door he tries is the door to Niall’s guest room, where they’d set up the bassinet and the baby monitor for the night; when he opens it, he finds Niall standing over the baby, watching her sleep. 

“Hey, love,” he whispers as he walks closer, and wraps his arms around Niall’s waist from behind when he gets to him. He tucks his chin over Niall’s shoulder. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Thought she was waking up,” Niall explains. “But when I got in here, she was still asleep, and I dunno… I lost track of time, I guess. Still trying to wrap my head around it all.”

Zayn doesn’t respond, just rubs at Niall’s hipbone with his thumb, his lips pressed to Niall’s shoulder. They sit there in silence, just watching the baby sleep.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Niall breaks the silence a few minutes later, and Zayn nods. “We should name her.”

“Mhmm,” Zayn replies. “Feels weird just calling her ‘the baby’.”

“She deserves more,” Niall says, and Zayn knows he’s not just talking about not having a name yet.

“She’s got it,” Zayn answers him, and when Niall shakes his head, Zayn lets go of him just enough to step in front of him, to meet his eyes. “No, I mean it, Ni. She deserves more than to be raised by someone who doesn’t want her, and she’s got that now, with you.”

“And you,” Niall adds, but it sounds like a question.

Zayn smiles and leans in to press a quick kiss to Niall’s lips. “And me,” he agrees. “I told you, m’here for it all.”

\--

When they wake up the next morning, the baby is still asleep, and Zayn rolls onto his side so that he’s facing Niall, scooting over until he’s sharing Niall’s pillow. 

“Hey,” he whispers. “Sleep okay?”

Niall nods, reaching out to rest a hand at Zayn’s waist. “What do you think about the name Mia?”

Zayn’s still a bit groggy, brain muddied with sleep, so it takes him a minute; when he catches on, though, he nods, reaches up and brushes Niall’s hair out of his eyes. “I love it.”

“Yeah?”

Zayn nods and leans in to kiss Niall, a quick good morning. “Fits her, I think.”

Niall smiles, then, and Zayn can’t help but smile back.

\--

They stay in bed until Mia wakes up, and then Zayn goes downstairs to make her a bottle while Niall gets her changed and into one of the outfits that Louis brought over. 

By the time Niall brings her downstairs, Zayn’s hanging up the phone. He hands Niall the bottle and goes back to the counter to start their teas. “Just made her an appointment with the pediatrician,” he says as he sets the teabags into their mugs. “Called Caro for the number for Brook’s doctor and they said they’d fit us right in this afternoon. That okay?”

When he turns back around, Niall’s looking at him with a mixture of what he thinks is shock (still) and awe. “I didn’t… I didn’t even think of that. You... yeah. That’s great, Z, how would I even be doing this without you-”

“Hey,” Zayn cuts him off, bringing their mugs to the table and setting them down. He crosses to the other side of the table so he’s standing behind Niall. He drapes himself over Niall’s shoulders, carefully as to not jostle the bottle from Mia’s mouth, and presses a kiss to Niall’s cheek. “You’d be able to do it just fine by yourself, okay? The point is that you don’t have to.”

\--

The doctor’s visit is a nightmare.

Well, the doctor’s visit isn’t necessarily a nightmare, but it is a bit overwhelming. 

“Zayn, I know none of these answers.”

“That’s okay, babe, we’ll explain it to the doc when they call us back,” Zayn replies distractedly. He’s got Mia on his lap, laying on her back on his legs, her head on his thighs and her little feet against his stomach, and he’s trying to make her laugh. She’s too little to even do that, though, just garbles and kicks when he manages to get her attention, but that’s okay. He’s still delighted with her, lets her hold the tip of his finger in her tiny little hand while they wait. 

They get called back a few minutes later, and Zayn hands Mia over to Niall so he can grab all of their things. They weren’t too sure of what’d they’d need, exactly, so they grabbed everything- a folder with their medical records and insurance information, diapers, wipes, onesies, bottles, formula, as well as all the stuff that had been in the diaper bag that had been with Mia when Niall had found her on the porch- and Zayn feels they eyes of all of the other patients in the waiting room on him as he gathers all of their stuff up.

\--

Dr. Harper examines Mia twenty minutes later while Niall and Zayn stand in the corner of the room and observe, be it a bit anxiously. 

Zayn reaches down to grab Niall’s hand and squeeze when Niall starts fidgeting, bouncing on his toes and messing with his hair. “She’s okay, Ni,” he whispers.

“I promise I won’t hurt her,” Dr. Harper adds, and glances over her shoulder with a knowing smile. “Protective daddies, are we? That’s good.”

Zayn squeezes Niall’s hand again at that, to comfort both Niall and himself. 

“We’re not, uh, actually- we’re not her dads? I thought I’d explained that on the phone, when I called,” Zayn starts. “She was left on our doorstep this morning, we just wanted to make sure she was alright.”

“You may not be her parents,” Dr. Harper says. “But you’ve definitely already got a paternal streak a mile wide. What are your plans, then? Do I need to call children’s services-”

“No,” Niall blurts out. “Sorry, um. No, that won’t be necessary.”

“So you plan to keep her?”

Niall looks over at Zayn, then, and Zayn smiles. Niall squeezes his hand and turns back to Dr. Harper. “Yeah, we’d like to.”

\--

After explaining the whole situation to Dr. Harper and getting a clean bill of health for Mia, Niall and Zayn head back home, Mia strapped safely into her carseat in the back. 

When they get back to Niall’s, Zayn heads upstairs for a shower; he’d had to skip his that morning because they were running late. Normally, he and Niall would have just showered together, but they had to take turns this morning so Mia wouldn’t be left alone, and neither of them accounted for needing more time. 

Making his way downstairs afterwards, he finds Niall on the couch with Mia. Instead of announcing himself, he props himself against the doorway and just watches as Niall interacts with Mia the same way Zayn himself had been at the doctor’s office- he’s got Mia laying on her back on his legs, her tiny little feet against his torso and one of his hands on her stomach to keep her in place. 

“Hi there, little dove,” he hears Niall murmur. He watches Niall as he slips a hand under Mia’s head and one under her bottom to pick her up, shifting on the couch so he’s laying down, head on the armrest, with Mia on his chest. “M’sorry that you’ve had to go through so much already, sweet girl.” Niall tilts his head down to press his lips to the top of Mia’s head, and his next words are muffled but meaningful. “Not gonna let anything else happen to you.”

Zayn’s heart swells and he can’t help but move across the room then, walking over to the couch and crouching next to Niall. He reaches out and rests a hand on Mia’s back, and he smiles when Niall’s hand immediately covers his. “Ditto,” Zayn manages, a little choked up all of a sudden. 

\--

"Bath time, booger!" Niall says the next morning, lifting Mia out of the bassinet they set up in the living room. "Let's go get you clean, hm?"

"I'll be up in a minute," Zayn calls from the kitchen, over the sound of him loading the dishwasher. "Don't do it all without me!"

"Just gonna run the water, love," Niall answers, unable to keep from smiling. It's been a shocking couple of days, but moments like this make it undoubtedly clear that he's made the right choice. While it's still scary, he takes comfort in the fact that Zayn is just as new at this as he is, and that he's just as excited, too. 

He heads upstairs and gets the water run for Mia, making sure it's not too hot and not too cold. He runs just about an inch or so before putting the plastic baby bath that Louis has brought over into the tub. By the time he gets everything situated, Zayn has made it upstairs, too, and he takes Mia from Niall so that he can get her out of her onesie.

"Alright, little bit," Zayn murmurs, getting down on his knees and leaning over the edge of the tub to set Mia gently into her bath seat. Niall joins him a moment later, handing him a washcloth and then reaching for the baby soap.

They get her all washed, and Zayn drains the water while Niall grabs the towel and scoops Mia up in it, pulling the little frog hood over her head and wrapping her body up in the rest of it.

"Okay, we have to," Niall says, and holds Mia in one arm so that he can fish his phone out of his pocket. "She's just too cute not to, right?"

Zayn grins and takes the phone from him, opening the camera and waiting for Niall to hold Mia up so that he can take the picture. He takes one of just Mia, bundled up in her frog towel, and then one of Niall smiling with her, and then turns the camera and hops in the picture, too.

He scrolls through the pictures while Niall gets a diaper and a onesie on Mia, smiling when he gets to the last one. "Look," he says, stepping up beside Niall at the changing table. Niall sets a hand on Mia's stomach and looks at the phone when Zayn shows it to him, smiling at the picture of all three of them, Zayn's arm around Niall's shoulders and Mia bundled up in Niall's arms. "Our first family picture, yeah?" 

\--  
The next three months pass by in a bit of a blur of bottles, diapers, and early mornings. They adjust to their new life easily, though, all things considered; Zayn officially moved in a month after Mia came, and he and Niall fall into their new routine relatively quickly.

On a Friday night in March, Niall decides he wants to try another one of the recipes he got from a cooking show he watches. Zayn’s sitting in the kitchen and feeding Mia while Niall cooks, listening while Niall tells him all about the special sauce he’s making for the chicken, and how it has to be cooked just right- “can’t take my eye off it for even a second, Z”- when the doorbell rings.

Zayn volunteers to go get it since Niall is preoccupied by the sauce he’s trying to master for dinner. “Don’t take your eye off it for even a second,” he jokes as he stands up, scooping up Mia to bring with him, since she tends to get fussy after she’s finished eating and prefers to be moving around. The doorbell rings again as he’s walking to it, and he looks down at Mia. “Impatient, aren’t they, love?” He asks her, before calling out “Coming!” after the third ring. 

He unlocks and opens the door, and it’s not until he’s got the door fully open that he looks up and sees who it is that’s standing in front of him. “Um,” is about all he can manage as he looks at Greg, takes in his dirty clothes and his greasy hair, sees his bloodshot eyes and the way he’s clearly shaking, hand trembling where he’s got his thumbnail pressed to his teeth.

“Um,” Zayn repeats. “Ni?”

“What is it, Z, are you okay-” Niall cuts off as he comes around the corner, dish towel still in his hands. He sighs when he sees his brother, resigned. “What, are you here for money?”

“No,” Greg denies. “No, I’m here for…” He trails off and points at Zayn. Or, rather, he points at where Zayn’s got Mia tucked into the crook of his arm. “I’m here for her.”

Zayn tenses immediately, his grip on Mia tightening just a bit; he turns to the side at the same time that Niall shifts so he’s standing in between Zayn and Greg.

“Like hell you are,” Niall says simply, and Zayn can see his jaw clenching as he says it. “Now get out.”

“She’s mine, bro, you can’t just-”

“You’re gonna wanna fuckin’ leave, Greg-”

“She’s my baby, man, and I want her back. I’m her dad, you can’t just take her and keep her away from me!”

“I didn’t take her from you, Greg, you left her on my doorstep.”

“That’s not my fault-”

“Like hell it’s not, you piece of shit! You abandoned her, and as far as I’m concerned, the second you walked away and left her there in the freezing cold you lost any fuckin’ right you had to call yourself her father.”

Mia starts crying then, distressed by the fighting, so Zayn walks them into the living room to get her away from the yelling. He can see Niall’s back from where he’s standing, can see Niall blocking Greg from getting any further into the house. He soothes Mia while he watches and listens to them continue to fight; at one point, Greg actually tries to run past Niall to get into the living room. Fortunately, Niall’s been working out and Greg’s clearly in withdrawal, and so Niall is able to stop him before Greg can even fully execute the attempt. He shoves Greg, hard, and Greg goes stumbling back into the foyer, catching himself against the door that was left open when he came in. 

“I’m going to say it one more time, Greg. Get out of my house and stay away from us, or I’m going to call the police.”

The next sound Zayn hears is the front door closing, and then the lock being turned and the deadbolt sliding home; not a second later, Niall comes rushing into the living room, making a beeline for Zayn and the baby.

“I’m so sorry,” he says, walking over to them. He wraps an arm around Zayn’s shoulders and pulls him into his side, pressing his lips against Zayn’s temple and reaching over to rest his hand on Mia’s tummy. Mia’s happy as can be now, squirming in Zayn’s arms and smiling up at Niall. “Bah!” She squeals, punching her little fist in the air, and they both laugh. “God, I’m. I could never let anything happen to this.”

“I know,” Zayn murmurs, tilting his head onto Niall’s shoulder. His heart is still racing, thudding loudly in his chest, and he takes a couple of deep breaths to try to distance himself from what just happened. “Nothing will.”

\--

That night, Zayn wakes to find himself in bed alone.

The clock on the nightstand reads 1:54 am, and there’s no sound coming from the baby monitor, so Zayn climbs out of bed to go find Niall.

There’s a light on at the bottom of the stairs, so Zayn heads downstairs and into the living room. He finds Niall there- he’s sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch and singing softly under his breath while he feeds Mia. 

“Hey,” Zayn murmurs, announcing himself as he walks into the living room. He sits down next to Niall, shoulder to shoulder, and pulls his knees up to his chest. “I could’ve gotten her.”

“I know,” Niall replies, and glances over at Zayn to shoot him a quick smile. “I wasn’t sleeping well, though, figured I’d take your turn.”

“Still upset from earlier?” Zayn asks, and Niall nods, breaks their eye contact to look back down at Mia. “Ni, hey. What’s going on?”

“I want…” Niall trails off. He looks at Zayn, then back down at Mia, and then back to Zayn before taking a big breath and continuing. “I want to adopt her. Officially. I want her to be ours.”

“Babe,” Zayn replies. He reaches out to slide his finger into Mia’s grasp, and smiles when she instantly latches onto him, squeezing his finger while she drinks her bottle. “She is ours.”

“I know,” Niall says. “I do. But I want it to be on paper. I don’t want there to ever be a chance that someone could come take her from us.”

Zayn looks up from Mia’s face to meet Niall’s eyes. Niall looks scared, and hopeful, and a million other things, but more than anything he just looks _sure_ /. Zayn reaches up with his other arm to rest a hand at the back of Niall’s neck, carding his fingers through the hair at his nape. 

“Okay,” he says, smiling, an _I want this, too_ and _we’ll do it together_ wrapped up in one simple word. He can’t seem to find the words for that, though, with the way his eyes are watering and how he feels choked up all of a sudden, can only manage another “okay,” but the way Niall smiles brilliantly back at him lets him know that he understands. “Let’s do it.”

\--

“Are you almost done, babe?” Zayn asks when he walks into the kitchen. He’s got Mia on his hip, her brown hair tied up into two pigtails on either side of her head.

“Da!” She shouts when she sees Niall, kicking her legs excitedly and reaching her arms out. 

“Hi, baby!” Niall greets her back, leaving what he was doing at the counter to walk over to where Zayn and Mia are. He leans down enough to be eye to eye with Mia and leans in to kiss her on the nose, making her giggle. She’s still reaching for him, so he grabs her, settling her on his own hip and leaning in to press a quick kiss to Zayn’s mouth. “Is it time?”

“Almost, yeah,” Zayn answers. “Haz texted and said they were gonna head over in the next couple of minutes and everyone else will be here right after that, probably.”

“Better get finished then,” Niall says, and hands Mia back to Zayn so that he can go back to what he was working on.

An hour later, their house is full of family and friends, and Mia is the star of the party. She’s very social, smiling and laughing at everyone who stops to wave and make faces at her.

She spends most of the afternoon wrapped up in Harry’s arms, one hand in his hair and one on his cheek, laughing delightedly at every little face and noise he makes at her.

“It’s not right,” Louis says, trying to sound cross but failing miserably, unable to stop smiling as he watches Harry and Mia interact. “I met her first.”

“Please, she loves you, too,” Zayn replies. “Besides, she’s not reacting any differently to Harry than you do-“ 

“Twat,” Louis says as he shoves Zayn’s shoulders. “Not untrue, but regardless, you’re a twat.”

“Language,” Niall says as he joins them. “There are children here.”

“I just heard you in the kitchen cursing all of your kitchenware, love, don’t pretend,” Zayn says as he wraps as arm around Niall’s waist. “Is it time?”

“Yeah, I was gonna come and grab Mia, but it seems like that might be harder than I thought,” Niall answers. Mia must hear him then, though, because they hear her shout “Da!” from across the room and when they look, grinning and reaching out towards them. Niall can’t hide the thrilled smile that tugs at his lips at that, and he makes his way across the room to go get his daughter, smiling at her grabs her from Harry.

“Now who’s the unbearably fond one?” Louis murmurs, bumping his shoulder against Zayn’s. “Careful, Malik, people might see you smile for once.”

Zayn’s retort is cut off by Niall rejoining them then, and Mia reaches out excitedly to him, shouting “Da!” at him, too. 

Niall hands her over and gives them both a kiss before disappearing back into the kitchen. He reappears a minute later with a cake tray in his hands, one candle lit right in the middle. He sets it down on the table and beckons Zayn over to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders once he does. 

“A little under a year ago, Zayn and I had a bit of a, um… lifechanging moment,” Niall says to everyone in the room. “This brilliant little girl was brought into our lives, and things haven’t been the same since. We couldn’t imagine life without her, and we wanted to thank all of you for coming over to celebrate Mia’s first birthday with us.”

Zayn presses a kiss to Mia's cheek and smiles at her when she looks up at him, thinks, _yeah, I'm glad you found us, little bit._ When he looks over at Niall and finds him already looking back, he knows Niall is thinking the same thing.

"Love you," Niall murmurs, low enough for just Zayn to hear it.

"Love you," Zayn replies, can't help the smile that takes over his face. He's happy, he's content, he's surrounded by all of his favorite people, and he's got his baby girl in his arms and Niall's arm around his shoulders. "Wouldn't change a thing."

"Gag me," Louis chimes in, rolling his eyes, but he can't hide the pleased smile on his face.


End file.
